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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoFile PhotoA satellite photo from Oct. 5, 2011, shows a toxic-algae bloom in Lake Erie extending from Toledo to Cleveland. Record rain that year washed more phosphorus off northern Ohio farm fields.

Spring rainstorms made more powerful by climate change will wash more fertilizers off farms and
grow even bigger toxic-algae blooms in Lake Erie, according to a new report.

The National Wildlife Federation’s report, which aims to draw attention to Lake Erie’s
ecological challenges, is based in part on scientific studies that have found that climate change
is helping toxic, blue-green algae thrive.

Melinda Koslow, the group’s regional program manager, said climate change has resulted in
more-frequent and stronger spring rains and hotter, drier summers. The combination is a recipe for
growing algae.

The report calls for direct government action and oversight to reduce the amount of phosphorus,
a key fertilizer ingredient that storms wash into the Maumee River and other streams that flow to
Lake Erie.

Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, is common in lakes and streams, but it grows thick when it
feeds on dissolved phosphorus. The algae can produce liver and nerve toxins that can sicken people
and kill pets.

The algae are a threat to the lake’s $10 billion annual fishing and tourism industry. Algae
problems aren’t limited to Lake Erie. Lakes across the state, including Grand Lake St. Marys in
western Ohio and Buckeye Lake in central Ohio, have had toxic-algae issues tied to farm runoff.

Studies by researchers at Heidelberg University in Tiffin show how record rainfall in the spring
of 2011 sent more than 470 tons of phosphorus into the Maumee and on to Lake Erie. By October that
year, the algae bloom stretched from Toledo to Cleveland.

Last year, the bloom was one-tenth that size, thanks to a near-drought that limited to 69 tons
the amount of phosphorus that made it to Lake Erie

This year, the National Weather Service’s 90-day outlook calls for “above average” rainfall
through June.

The wildlife federation’s report calls for increased state oversight of farming, including
imposing mandatory limits on manure and fertilizer use by declaring the Maumee River basin a “
distressed watershed.”

State officials have been unwilling to push regulations or mandatory limits on farmers near Lake
Erie.

Erica Pitchford Hawkins, an Ohio Department of Agriculture spokeswoman, said a panel of
scientists, state officials, environmentalists and agriculture groups is expected to release new
recommendations in a report this summer.

In 2010, the group recommended voluntary steps to reduce fertilizer runoff from farms in the
Lake Erie basin.

“Their input is valuable in helping us move forward and figuring out the best way to address the
problem,” Pitchford Hawkins said.

Joe Cornely, spokesman for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, said farmers should be allowed the
time to try to solve runoff issues on their own. “They want to weigh in on how to fix it,” he
said.

Algae blooms were common in the 1970s but had disappeared by the late 1980s, partly because of a
dramatic reduction of phosphorus pollution in the lake. The blooms began to return in 2000 and have
worsened since then.